The fire in the hearth had gone out in the small hours, leaving the morning bitterly cold. Many young wizards had barely lifted their blankets before hastily burrowing back underneath.
Quite a few even wondered whether they had slept straight through to late December. Yesterday, slightly thicker autumn clothes had been enough, so why could they not even leave their beds today?
The older students waved their wands and shouted for their clothes to come flying over.
But the younger students did not know the Summoning Charm. They could only huddle under their blankets like quails, hoping their dormitory contained a brave soul unafraid of the cold who could fetch their clothes.
Unfortunately, brave souls earned that name precisely because they were few and far between. In the end, the students had to throw back their blankets and sprint toward their trunks as though running a hundred-meter dash.
They grabbed armfuls of clothes, then charged back howling, stuffing everything haphazardly beneath their blankets in the vain hope that their beds would warm the clothes up.
Only when they ventured outside, shivering and asking one another whether there was a warming charm, did they discover that heavy snow had fallen overnight.
All of Hogwarts lay beneath a blanket of snow, a world of gleaming white. Soft snow like sugar piled up on the leaves that had not yet fallen from the branches.
Hard ice covered the lake, and quite a few students simply ran out onto it to play.
Naturally, most were first- and second-year Wizards who could not visit Hogsmeade. There were also some older students who had been so often that the village had long since lost its novelty.
In weather like this, even Little Ma Brother had to reluctantly abandon his favorite shirt-and-trench-coat look.
He chose to bundle